Spinners

McDonnell Javelin F-99C - 186th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, Montana ANG, 1963

Gloster Javelin Mk.56 - No.201 Squadron, Heyl Ha'Avir, 1963

Not really. Not with R.530's.

Gloster Javelin Mk.56 - 201 Sqd, IDF

Hawker Tempest Mk.5 - No.322 Squadron, Royal Netherlands Air Force, 1946

Gloster Javelin Mk.55 - No.323 Sqd, Royal Netherlands Air Force, 1966

No. R.530's.

Dutch Roll

Super Mario!

Supermarine Scarab F.3 - No.11 Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1983

Dassault-Convair F-114B Mirage - 119th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, New Jersey ANG, 1965 During the Spring of 1961 the incoming Secretary of Defence Robert S. McNamara left no stone unturned in his search for efficiencies in procurement and operational costs and his attention soon turned to the Air Defence units of the Air National Guard (ANG). At the time the ANG units were operating a mix of early 1950's jet fighters such as the F-84 and F-86 alongside the hot ships of the 'Century Series' with some fanciful and expensive plans on future re-equipment by advanced versions of the F-106 and, looking further ahead, the F-108. But McNamara soon put these plans in jeopardy by setting his whizz-kids to work on a lower cost solution. Adoption of the F-4 Phantom II by the USAF was all well and good but this was an expensive beast even when considering 'commonality' and with several hundred aircraft to replace another solution was needed. Envious eyes were soon turned to Europe where two excellent single-engined Mach 2 interceptors were entering service - the Saab Draken and the Mirage III and 'Project Zeus' was an exhaustive study into the operational effectiveness and expected cost-savings of both types measured against re-starting the recently closed F-106A production line. Studies continued through 1961 and early 1962 and, when published in May 1962, 'Project Zeus' revealed that the Mirage IIIC offered the best combination of price and performance. Crucially, it further outlined that only a minimum change version would yield sufficient cost savings as plans to re-engine the Mirage with the J-79 and to introduce the Hughes MA-X radar (essentially a scaled-down version of their MA-1 integrated fire control system as fitted to the F-106A) reduced the gains to zero. With Convair's hopes of further F-106A production dashed they readily agreed to partner Dassault and licence-produce the Mirage IIIC for the USAF soon designated as the F-114A (single-seat) and F-114B (two-seat trainer). Production commenced in late 1963 and the type entered service in May 1964 with the 119th Fighter Interceptor Squadron of the New Jersey ANG. The F-114's served until the early 1980's with most replaced by the F-16A (ADC). Just a quick decal job on Denis Oliveira's very inventive Mirage IIIB.

The F-84F Thunderstreak masquerading as the Focke-Wulf Fw-199D 'Donnerflitzen'

Polish Spitfire Mk.14e

Pairs Landing

It's almost certain that the guy's first language isn't English so cut him some slack. And seeing as Streakeagle has, quite correctly, steered him in our direction we might just want to give him a warm welcome.

Yes, they came with the download.

Training Day

File Name: [Fictional] Republic Aviation F-84 Thunderstreak File Submitter: Spinners File Submitted: 04 May 2015 File Category: What If Hangar Republic F-84M Thunderstreak for STRIKE FIGHTERS 2 This is a very simple mod of the stock Third Wire F-84F to give a fictional F-84M Thunderstreak of the Royal Australian Air Force with markings for No.76 Squadron (NMF/Silver) and No.1 Squadron (Camo). The camo skin becomes default from 1964 but can be selected earlier. BACKSTORY The swept-wing Republic F-84F Thunderstreak was an important fighter-bomber for the United States and her NATO allies and after a troubled development and delays in production the Thunderstreak programme soon recovered and, with massive orders to fulfill, the Farmingdale production line was supplemented by a second production line outsourced to General Motors at Kansas City. When the last straight-winged F-84G Thunderjet rolled off the Farmingdale production line on July 27th, 1953 production of the newer aircraft stepped up sharply and was boosted by the employment of several subcontractors including Kaiser Metal Products, Servel and Goodyear Aircraft. Republic Aviation then started a self-financed project to replace the F-84F and RF-84F family and Alexander Kartveli's design team settled on a large, single-engined fighter-bomber initially known as the AP-63FBX (Advanced Project 63 Fighter Bomber, Experimental) but later to become the legendary F-105. Designed primarily for supersonic, low altitude penetration the F-105 was capable of delivering a single nuclear bomb carried in a small internal weapons bay and an enthusiastic United States Air Force soon rewarded Republic with a production order contract for 199 aircraft in September 1952. However, the expected end of the Korean War forced the United States Air Force to reduce their order to just 46 aircraft before cancelling the entire programme at the end of 1953 but then reinstating the programme in June 1954 with a small order for 15 F-105 aircraft (two YF-105A's, four YF-105B's, six F-105B's and three RF-105B's). Faced with such uncertainty, Republic Aviation looked at ways of keeping the F-84F in production and focused on tackling the F-84F's mediocre flight performance and especially the poor takeoff performance with a more powerful engine. Kartveli quickly dusted down a previous study of fitting the Rolls-Royce Avon engine into the F-84F and with this fine engine being of a similar size as the Sapphire/J65 but now rated at 10,000lbs of dry thrust Kartveli looked no further than an F-84F modified to accept the Avon engine. The new version also incorporated several refinements learned from service experience such as stainless steel control rods and an improved all-flying tail that almost removed the vicious stall characteristics of the F-84F. Designated by Republic Aviation as the F-84M the new aircraft was marketed aggressively as a dedicated tactical fighter-bomber and soon picked up orders from Canada and Australia with the latter operating their F-84M's in action over Vietnam in 1964 and 1965. INSTRUCTIONS 1. From the AIRCRAFT folder drag and drop the F-84M folder into your main Aircraft folder. 2. From the DECALS folder drag and drop the F-84M folder into your main Decals folder. CREDITS As always, thanks to Third Wire for a great little game/sim and for generously putting the F-84F lods in the SF2:Europe game. Thanks to NeverEnough for the flap and lights tweaks added to the stock data.ini. Thanks to Paulopanz for the silver skin taken from his Turkish Thunderstreak and thanks in turn to ludo.54m for the template. Thanks to a combination of Wrench, Acesfakia & Paulopanz for the camo skin. Regards Spinners Version 1 - 04/05/15 Click here to download this file

Republic Aviation F-84M Thunderstreak - No.76 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, 1961

He'll be along soon enough...

Vought F-8E Crusader - No.300 Indian Naval Air Squadron, 1971

Impressive!